Experiences over stuff, creating instead of consuming and nothing nails a 30th Birthday Gift like a good time together....

Yes, you never thought it would happen. You would always be twenty. Thirty is a milestone, but actually rather a good one. You are not really a proper grown-up (that's forty these days), you can still pass for twenty-five, but you have got to an age when you can say 'no' and that is rather liberating.

You can say 'no' to quite a lot of things. Falling under the table after eight vodka shots and a bottle of this or that is a good example. It was never a good look, only acceptable because everyone else was.

You can say no to one-night stands, or yes if you feel like it, in an adult sophisticated 'we've all been there' kind-of-a-way. Equally this is your year to say no to people pleasing, no to impulsive spending - unless of course you simply can't do without it (Zara is best avoided), and no to the career you never thought you would end up in.

This is very subjective, and it is surprising what's out there. My 30-year-old neighbour is doing a stint in the fraud squad, dealing with cryptocurrency, a career I didn't even consider. Loves it. In fact, you are apparently just about to enter your peak year for recognising faces. This would be excellent if you are entering a career in security for example. Face processing as a career is still quite niche, but it's good to know you can consider it as an option.

Thirty is the year that can still be 'all about you', unless you have already committed to a family, in which case, bad luck, you will have to wait until you are thirty-five and the team are at day school.

Every ten years, those special birthdays come around, and they act as a prompt to think 'should I be redefining my life'? Allow yourself these thoughts for about a week, and then you can pretty much carry on as you did last week, only with the adjustments mentioned above.

Life is not really about dramatic changes, more a gentle progress rolling from one stage in your life to the next. To have a party or not? You are still at an age when you probably have quite a lot of friends, indeed are still collecting them, so why not? Nothing is nicer than an evening with the mates. The ones that know you, really rather well, for yes falling under the table does cement a friendship. If you are thirty, so are your friends. What to do? Where to go? What to give? An experience obviously, because you don't need more stuff (see above!).